Personality and Attitude
by Tiscuit
Summary: School's starting again. Joan meets a new girl that Adam doesn't like
1. explosion

Title: Personality and Attitude

Date: 8/7-9/04

Summary: School's starting up again. Joan meets a new girl that Adam doesn't like.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Joan of Arcadia characters or stories. I wish I did. That'd be fabulous. Here's to those who do.

Rating: G

Cheese Factor: hmm. I've never done a cheese factor before b/c this is my 2nd story and my 1st didn't have a cheese factor...so on a scale on 1 to 10 I would probably say about a 3.4 , around that area.

Dedication: To Alexandri, Admiral Lily, and Possibilities for reviewing my 1st story. Hope you like this story line better. And to anyone else who needs or deserves a dedication for any reason at all. Here's to you.

Spoilers: takes place after "Silence" so any and all of the 1st season is possible.

"What a summer!" Grace exclaims down the hall. "Now back to the totalitarianism of high school."

"I hardly ever know what you're talking about." Adam says then looks at Joan, her hand linked in his.

"And at one time you said that about me." She says halfheartedly.

"Yeah sorry about that, yo."

Seconds later Luke join the group. Joan is hand-in-hand with Adam and Grace is hand-in-hand with Luke for a second, then hesitates, then decides "what the heck?" as she grabs him and kisses him passionately. Adam and Joan continue to walk forward, turn and are shocked by the sight before their eyes. Suddenly another student interrupts their thoughts. The girl, African American, about 5'7", wearing a plain white shirt with black capris and black-and-white graffiti Chucks, who was walking around, all books in hand, looking for her 1st class , is now on the ground picking them up off the ground.

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry." She says muffled, as her head is down trying to organize everything that's scattered on the ground.

"Oh no it was our fault. We were distracted." Joan replies as she kneels down to help the girl with the books. "I'm Joan." She says when they are both in the upright position. Joan hands her back her book.

"Thank you. I'm Elizabeth. Liz for short. I'm just moved here from Kansas."

"Well, nice to meet you, Liz. This is Adam." Joan gestures to Adam, who has just been standing there during this whole ordeal, comes to and has a shocking response.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going next time." Adam yells, ignoring looks from the people in the hall, and storms off, leaving Joan to stand there with nothing but confusion.

"Sorry about Adam." Is all Joan could think of to say.

"Well he certainly likes me." Liz replies.

"He's usually not like this. I don't know what's up."

"Oh well no harm done." Liz says , surveying the ground for anything she might have left behind.

"Well I got to get to class."

"Yeah me too. Thanks again."

Joan walks off to try to catch up with Adam as Liz watches her go, fighting back tears. She goes back to her original path, trying to find her class.

"Bye, Liz." Joan manages to say after they'd both gone too far away to hear. "What a nice girl." She thought. "Elizabeth"


	2. brush off

Joan walks down the hall after 3rd period going to the lunchroom, looking for Grace or Adam or Luke, anybody she knew. From the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar than jacket walking up along side her.

"You can't be here. You aren't real."

"That's your opinion, Joan. Gave you choice and freewill for a reason. But you should know by now I have a bigger plan for you then you can see right now.

"Well now I'm using my freewill. You aren't real. No more assignments, no more "popping, no more metaphors, and no more people thinking I'm crazy. I'm done."

"I think you should help Adam with his anger."

"Hmm....did you just miss my whole little speech?"

"Oh no I heard you. I hear everything all of you say ,even when you don't say it. Like I told you before thoughts are things, too. Don't try to be someone you're not. Your personality is great. If you change anything is should be your attitude."

"Yeah thanks for your little lecture, but I've got to go find my friends." This is the 1st time Joan has walked away from God and not the other way around so there is no God wave.

Finally reaching the lunch room, Joan meets up with her friend and brother, who were also looking for her.

"Girardi, we were looking for you. Where ya been?"

"I was looking for you, too. I just had to take care of something. Have you seen Adam?"

"Yeah, he's over there. You didn't break up with him already, did you? He's all morose."

"No, of course not. He started acting really weird this morning. I need to talk to him." Joan leaves Grace and Luke standing there to go over to the table where Adam is drawing in his sketchbook.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Are you ok?"

"Sure, Jane. I'm fine."

Joan sits down beside him. Grace and Luke take seats across from them.

"You didn't seem too fine this morning. What's up?"

"Jane.... I'm fine." Adam draws his attention back to his sketchbook. Joan looks up at Grace and Luke meeting the confusion in all their eyes.

Just then Elizabeth walks in the lunchroom. Joan sees her from far away. "Elizabeth," She calls "over here."

Elizabeth gladly accepts and comes to their table.

"Liz ,this is my best friend, Grace and her boyfriend, my brother, Luke."

"Nice to meet you." Liz turns to Adam. "Those pictures are awesome." She says genuinely, hoping to forget everything that happened this morning if he would just talk to her.

Adam looks up at Liz briefly, back to his work, and picks up his stuff to leave. "I've gotta go. See ya Jane." Adam hurriedly leaves the lunchroom.

Liz takes his spot at the table. "Is there something wrong with me? Did I go something?"

"No, Liz there's nothing wrong with you. Something's wrong with Adam. I'm not sure what." Joan quickly replies.

"Yeah, nothing's wrong with you. Rove is just....Rove. Anything could be happening." Grace says. Luke nods in agreement.


	3. realization

"Hold on." Adams puts down his current work down, walks over to the door of his shed and looks on with surprise as to who's at the door...

"Well don't look so surprised. I come over all the time." Joan says laughing. "So where were you after lunch?"

"I had some stuff on my mind. A really great idea for a new project, actually. Had to come home before I lost it."

"Why have you been so upset today?"

"It's ....I don't know. Just weird coming back to school again after the summer we've had and everything."

"Is this because of Elizabeth?" Silence fell over both of them and Joan had her answer. "I thought you would be over that hill when you read her note. It's not your fault, Adam."

"Yeah you'd think. I don't know, Jane. I felt so much better after your mom read the note and when you gave me that picture. And when you told you your secret when though you were sick. Just when I thought everything was going great, Liz brought me back to reality and that the realization that my mom's not coming back. I'm not gonna kill myself over it but...it just sucks, ya know?"

Joan walks over to Adam, puts her arms around his neck and lets Adam cry on her shoulder. His crying stopped and they pulled away.

"I think you should tell Liz this. She thinks you hate for some other reason."

"I don't hate her. Why would she think th....oh Jane it's not the 60's anymore."

"Well why don't you tell her that? C'mon, I'll drive you." Joan and Adam walk out hand-in-hand


	4. explanation

"Hi. Is Elizabeth home?"

"Yes. Let me go get her for you."

"Thank you."

"Liz! You have a visitor."

"Tell them to come in. I'm in my room."

The young lady comes back to the door. "Come on in. She's in her room. It's the 2nd door on the right."

"Thanks." Adams heads down the hall into a nicely decorated bedroom, bed by the window, with Elizabeth on it, folding laundry. "Hey."

"Did you come to yell at me some more or walk off when I give you a complement?" the anger in Liz's voice is apparent.

Adam, without being invited, goes over to Liz's bed and sits across from her. "No, not this time," she says trying to keep the conversation light.

"Oh, well that's good. I've had enough of a bruised ego for one day. Ya know moving from Kansas to Maryland isn't enough but on my 1st day of school to my 1st class I run into this guy, drop all my books, and his girlfriend, not him, helps me pick them up. Then he yells at me. Then at lunch, when I give him a complement to forget it all happened, he runs off. How many times can you feel totally embarrassed in one day?"

"How did you know that me and Joan were going out?"

Liz shoots him a look but Adam misses it because he's looking around the room of all her pictures of singer, actors, actresses, celebrities of all shapes, sizes and color, past and present. "Wow. Cool collages."

"Yeah thanks. I want to be one of those people. Someone people would want to put up on their wall. I used to think that if I put their pictures up I...I could pick up on their personalities."

Adam looks back at Liz. "What changed?"

"I came back to reality and realized that if I'm gonna do well , I have to do it on my own term. I just ... changed my attitude I guess."

"Good way to look at it."

"Thanks..so how did you know where I live and why are you here?"

Adam's looking back up at the collages. "Jane."

"Ok...who?"

Adam looks back at Liz again. "I mean Joan. I call Joan 'Jane'. She told me to come talk to you."

"Why did Joan or 'Jane' tell you to come talk to me?" Liz takes a pile of towels and head to her bathroom. Adam follows slowly behind and stands in the bathroom doorway as Liz puts away the towels in her closet.

"My mom's name is Elizabeth."

"Oh that explains it. Did she ground you for the weekend so you had to ditch plans with 'Jane' and you decided to take it out on me? It makes perfect sense."

"My mother's dead." Adam says matter-of-factly.

"Oh." That's all Liz could get out from the guilt and tears welding up in her eyes.

"Are you Ok?" Adam says coming towards Liz but she puts a hand up that stops him. So he goes back to the doorway.

"I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't know."

"No. I shouldn't have went postal on you this morning or at lunch." After moments of complete and utter silence between them Adam decides to break it up. "So your...your mom seems really nice."

Liz wipes the tears from her eyes with one of the towels she was putting away. "That's not my mom." There was a pause, Liz watching and waiting for Adam to ask the inevitable question. When it didn't happen she answered the unasked question for him. "That's my aunt. My mom, like yours, is dead. She...uh...had cancer. Then about a year ago my dad killed himself. So I moved to Arcadia to live with my aunt and uncle."

"Wow."

"Yeah crazy right? So how did your mom die?"

"She overdosed on pills."

"Well everything happens for a reason."

"How can you have just said that?"

"What? You don't believe that there's a big plan that we can't see?"

"Too much bad stuff has happened?"

"Ha. That was very Landon Carter of you." Liz takes off back to her room, and sits on her bed. Adam follows, grabs a chair from the corner of the room and puts it by Liz's bed.

"What?"

"Landon Carter. A Walk to Remember." She gets up and finds the tape and hands it to Adam. "He said almost the exactly same thing."

Adam laughs looking at the tape's cover.

"But that's all I believe. What other explanation could they be?"

"That the world is totally against us? Wants to make us suffer? Make us miserable?"

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"AH...who knows what I believe?"

"You should." Liz laughs. "Well that was a nice conversation."

"Yeah it was." They both laugh. Adams stops and walks over to Liz while Liz is still laughing and puts out his hand.

"Hi! I'm Adam."

Liz stops laughing and looks down at Adam's hand. "Is this us starting over?" Adam nods.

"I'm Elizabeth. Liz for short."

"Nice to meet you, Liz."

"You too, Adam."

"Well I've got to go."

"Ok. Thanks for coming over."

"Oh no problem, yo." Adam walks out of Liz's room, with Liz not far behind, opens the front door for Adam. "See ya tomorrow."

Liz closes behind him and smiles. "This was a good day." She thought.

Adam walks out the door and back to Joan in her car, who was singing to her car radio. She stops once the car door opens but it was too late, Adam could hear her from far outside the car. "Nice singing."

"Yeah thanks. So how did it go?"

Adam gets in the car and explained everything that happened, everything that was said. "Yeah, and then she was talking abut personalities and attitudes and even though all the stuff that she has been though she still believes everything happens for a reason and that there is a bigger plan for her." Adam continues to talk while Joan stares off in amazement at what just happened.

He did it again.

And that's all there...there aren't no more. This didn't turn out as good as I hoped it would. Thanks for reading.


End file.
